At last, a celebrity with a realistic outlook on her whatever-line: "Unless you need it, it's just stuff," says Alicia Silverstone of her collaboration with Ecotools. [WWD]

Paris has a Musée de la Contrefaçon, where counterfeit and genuine goods are lined up and displayed, side-by-side. Everything from the predictable (Dior handbags) to the slightly insane (Tabasco sauce) to the downright worrisome (pregnancy tests) has been knocked off; France estimates the trade in counterfeits costs its economy 38,000 jobs and $85 billion. A museum that looks like a Noah's ark of consumer goods would be an awesome place to visit. [LATimes]

Counterfeiting is big business in Los Angeles. Vendors of counterfeit goods are so canny they have even memorized the plate numbers of undercover cops, and some labels hire private investigators to police the trade in markets like Santee Alley. The Los Angeles Economic Development Corporation estimates that L.A.-based companies lost $5.2 billion to counterfeiters in 2005. [LATimes]

The concept for Victoria Beckham's next campaign for her dress line apparently involves models on swings — so Posh joined the models, and sat expressionless on a rope swing. [Daily Mail]

Beauty chain Ulta has 331 stores nationwide, and is giving Sephora, with 230 U.S. outposts, a run for its money. Unlike Sephora, Ulta doesn't shy away from selling drugstore makeup, like Maybelline and L'Oréal — but it still offers attentive customer service and plentiful samples. Prestige brands are also well represented. Many branches have hair salons inside. Ulta is also expanding like kudzu in this real estate market: It opened 65 stores last year. [NYTimes]

Once the Economist is on to "pop-up" stores, they're seriously not "unusual" anymore. [Economist]

Yes, our primary concern in this market when luxury brands are forced to price their handbags at $4,445 instead of $4,900 should be the long-term ability of those brands to hike prices to $5,200 in the near future. Give us a fucking break. [BW]

Moody's has downgraded C.E.O.-less troubled retailer Barney's New York. Again. By two whole notches. To Caa3, which is just one stop above Ca, which is for securities that "are likely in, or very near, default, with some prospect of recovery of principal and interest." [WWD]

Some sources are saying that Zappos wanted to remain independently owned, but was actually forced to sell itself to Amazon by venture capitalists who had invested in the company. [BusinessJournals]